Line of Draught of Plows. 179 



might be expected, very great when applied to a plow. The point 

 of a plowshare may be readily supposed, at one instant, to have 

 burst a sod, which, opening and being raised upwards, offers for 

 several inches but a trifling resistance to its progress; it again 

 meets the obstacle, which is again overcome. It is similar with 

 roots, stones and other varying impediments, and thus, at every 

 step of the horse (whose motion is also a series of impulses), the 

 draught, as exhibited by the dynamometer, is continually and 

 largely varying. 



These are effects arising from the nature of animal force and 

 of the soil; they are necessarily common to both plows, but 

 appear to be augmented in the swing, compared with the wheel 

 plow, and sufiiciently account for the diminished draught of the 

 latter as shown in the experiments. 



We think we have now shown that the claims of the advocates 

 of swing ploAvs are mostly invalid, while those of the friends of 

 the wheel plow are shown to be founded in reason and experi- 

 ence, and the practice of American farmers is therefore fully 

 justified. 



Before leaving the subject we desire to quote a statement of 

 Mr. Handley, which very strikingly illustrates the action of the 

 plowman on the draught of the plow. 



" In one of my trials I substituted for a first-rate plowman one 

 who, though no novice, was decidedly his inferior, and who held 

 the same plow for a bout, during which he exerted his best abili- 

 ties, aware of the comparison about to be instituted, and yet the 

 draught w^as in, his hands, increased six per cent, and I have no 

 doubt, had he continued to hold the plow for an entire day, it 

 would have been considerably more. This man, though inferior 

 to the other, possessed skill above the average of plowman usually 

 employed. Had he held a plow with wheels there would proba- 

 bly have been no difference in the draught between the holding 

 of the plow by himself and predecessor." 



There is a considerable difference in the mode of making and 

 attaching wheels to plows. The old fashioned high gallows 

 frame may be seen in Plate I. This plan, though capable of 

 being used by a good plowman so as to do good work, is so 

 complex in the adjustment that in the hands of unskilled work- 

 men they are apt to consume more power and to do less perfect 

 work. 



